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We have been cycling down the Carretera Austral  in Patagonia, Chile for the last few weeks and have now reached Villa O’Higgins where that route ends.  We are now going to cross into Argentina and continue south down Ruta 40 or the Ice Road which goes past many glaciers.  See the previous posts for cycling the Carretera Austral.

Villa O’Higgins in Chile crossing the border to Laguna del Desierto in Argentina via two ferries and a rough single track

We had moved accommodation yesterday as the place we were staying was fully booked.  We ended up at El Mosco Hostel where most of the other cyclists were staying and were lucky enough to get a private room.

All the cyclists were up and loading bikes in the dark at 6 this morning as we had an 8 km ride to catch the ferry at 6.45.  Luckily it was almost flat but on ripio and I found my front light had a flat battery so I just followed Bernie’s line to avoid the bumps.

It was much warmer this morning, it had been snowing on the hills for the last few days with an icy wind, so the ride was lovely as the sun  slowly rose above the mountains.   There seemed to be 3 boats and the other two left first.  Our boat was fully booked and they took a while to load the bikes with the lighter ones being lifted on to the roof and the others, like ours tied onto the back deck.  Once in our lifejackets we set off at a fair pace.  It was quite calm to start but even with very little wind it got quite rough in the middle.   The man from the booking office was on board and he made everyone a tea or coffee and gave out chocolate biscuits.  Thankfully Bernie made the 1.5 hr crossing without being ill.

We had arranged with Ricardo to drive us up the first very steep and rough stone road to the Argentinian boarder.  But somehow it took the first few people over an hour to get stamped out of Chile Customs.  By the time they got to us it took about 2 mins each.  This meant that Ricardo had got fed up waiting and taken some other people first and he didn’t return for about 2 hrs.  Thankfully we didn’t just cycle up anyway as once in the truck we saw just how steep and rough it was.  I almost certainly would have had to push most of it.  The drive up had amazing views and some very steep drops. 

Our driver was the grandson of Candelario Mancilla who the landing area and all the land we were driving through was named after.  It was a wild, steep and very rugged landscape mainly covered in Nothofagus forest.  It was also spectacular and it was probably a shame we were not cycling or more likely pushing, through it.  Occasionally in the 4WD we got very close to the vertiginous drops while bumping along the crumbling road.  Nearly at the top we had our first view of Fitz Roy Mountain, spectacular and clear against the blue sky.  Apparently they haven’t been able to see it in the murk of the last few days so we are very lucky.

At the top we were dropped at the Argentinian border where the fastest, and youngest of the cyclists from the ferry were already cooling down.

The next stage was the push with occasional riding through a 5.5 km single track to the actual Argentinian customs and Lago Desierto.  It was full of large rocks, drop offs, fallen trees, muddy boggy bits and bridges made of fallen bits of tree.  We often had to lift our bikes up to 1m to get over an obstacle or bank and I frequently got stuck halfway up or over and had to be rescued by Bernie.  Bernie also took my bike across the rivers where you either had to balance precariously on rocks or on a single log.  So thank you Bernie, you’re a star! 

Bernie actually managed to ride most of it, but coward that I am, I ran along behind pushing my bike.  We had lots of views of Fitz Roy as we went along, each one amazing.   The forest that we were in was also incredibly beautiful, full of thick dark green moss and ferns, and pushing meant I could look around more.

A very steep descent brought us nearly to the lake with just the most difficult river to cross. Judging by the clothes and shoes drying in the sun outside the customs building some of the others had a less successful crossing.  Unlike the Chilean customs the Argentinian customs was very quick.  Then we were lying in the sun by the lake with the other cyclists and eating a late lunch. 

The boat to cross Lago Desierto turned up at 5 and we all piled on.  We slowly made our way across the small lake with the sun beaming down and a magnificent view of Fitz Roy filling the large bow windows.  A kilometre from the ferry we found the hostel we had booked, like something out of a Graham Green novel, and with Argentinian tango music playing we were treated to a wonderful meal.  Now exhausted but it was a great adventure.

Punta Sur, Laguna del Desierto to El Chalten

We had decided to stop at the Punta Sur Hostel as we wanted to have some relaxing down time after a very long day yesterday.   Unfortunately at about 4 am a couple in the next room got up to leave early and spent the next hour or so waking up the rest of the hotel by chatting and laughing loudly and stomping around slamming doors.  In the end I got up and yelled at them and it went quite for a couple of minutes then started again.

So I was a bit of a grumpy when we got up, not helped by the surly teenager in charge of the breakfast who only seemed to be able to make tepid water for the tea.

We decided to take the morning off and walk up through the forest behind the hotel to see the glacier.   This was just what we needed.  The forest was beautiful, full of mature Nothofagus trees, lots of moss, lichens and ferns and the constant sound of tumbling water.  It seemed so easy to walk up the steep hill without bicycles.   Eventually we emerged at the top to see Mount Fitz Roy and round the corner the glacier, which was looking a little worse for wear as they all are these days.  We had had the place pretty much to ourselves which was lovely, but when we got back down we found the carpark filling up with minibuses and crowds of group tours.

We had a quick, overpriced lunch at the hostel.  A half heated pizza which they half heated again when we sent it back.  Then we set off on the very rough stoney road towards El Chalten.   Despite the roughness of the road it was a beautiful ride as we were circling Mount Fitz Roy, while riding next to a fast flowing bright blue river flowing from Laguna del Desierto, and there were views of glaciers and multicoloured, stripey mountains.

We arrived in El Chaiten which was a bit of a culture shock.  It is quite small but a full blown tourist activity centre.  As we arrived there were people jogging, hiking the numerous trails,  heading off for climbing and bouldering, and a whole street of cake shops, cafes, restaurants and mountain equipment shops.  We immediately ran into people we had met in Chile who had the misfortune to come here on the previous boat, in the cold and rain with no views.  We have been so lucky with the weather.

Bernie has booked us into a B&B on a quieter street so fingers crossed for a quiet night.

El Chalten to Posada La Leona

We hadn’t planned on going so far today, but we passed our 55 km wildcamp at 11 am .  We had originally thought we would be on ripio today, not perfect tarmac, and the strong tailwind initially had us moving about 55 km/hr.  This didn’t last unfortunately.   We were just commenting that the wind had dropped completely when, wham, we found ourselves off the side of the road.   This very strong sidewind was still coming from the back quarter thankfully but it was difficult to control and dangerous when a big vehicle went past and we suddenly found ourselves leaning into nothing and weaving across the road.

When we first left I thought there was a tall person sitting by the road but it was a Black Chested Buzzard.  It must have been a meter tall when perching.   There were a lot of different enormous birds circling in the thermals, black underside with fingered wings and white on top that I think, due to their scrawny necks were Andean Condors.  We saw quite a few of them, Caracaras and a smaller bird of prey sitting in a group beside the lake.

Later on we saw quite a few Guanacos, some with young Chulengos.  A couple of Rheas and a Patagonian Fox (Gray Fox).  When the other cyclists came through the Fox had caught a rabbit.

We stopped for lunch in a newish, enclosed hut with huge windows.  Unfortunately someone had already stolen the USB charging points but you could get WiFi there and more importantly get out of the wind. 

We were now on Argentina’s Ruta 40 with 20 km to go when the wind changed direction so we had a head wind.  We were exhausted when we arrived at La Leona and set up our tent.  At least we can get supper in their restaurant, under all the Butch Cassidy Might Have Been Here signs, and the showers were hot.

Posada La Leona to El Calafate

We managed to get packed up and away by 8.55 despite chatting to Eric and Jen from Canada and Chavi, Sarah and Patrick who we have been meeting on and off since the Carretera Austral.   The wind, although strong was not as excessive as yesterday and was still coming from the north.  This meant we hardly had to pedal for the initial 73 km, except for the climbs that somehow took us around sharp bends into a headwind.

It was a very bleak landscape  but still beautiful in its rather brown and rolling way.  We saw almost no fauna except for occasional groups of Guanacos.   We crossed two big, very blue and very fast rivers.  The second one we went down to the edge to have lunch.  This had been our choice for a wild camp if necessary but we got there at about 12.30, and apart from having no protection from the wind, it wasn’t very savoury due to human deposits left by previous visitors.

We knew it would get harder when we had to turn sharp right onto the road to El Calafate.  Then we had the full force of the wind head on, with occasional bits of rain and suddenly a lot of very fast traffic on a fairly narrow road.   They still squeezed past at full speed whatever was coming the other way.  Occasionally if a bus or lorry was coming from in front then I moved out to fill the space, and the car behind got really full horn angry.  Waiting a few seconds was not part of their mindset.  It is the first time we have experienced this here.  It’s probably because today and tomorrow are a National Holiday for the Lunar New Year here and Carnival.   Hopefully by Wednesday it will all be back to normal.

Somehow we made the 106 km to El Calafate and got through the police check  with armed police and dogs, who were stopping everyone on their way in and out of town.   We stopped at the first cafe we found, not just to eat cake, but mainly to use their Internet to find a hotel.  We chose one that said it was the closest to the centre, they lied!  Bernie plotted a route to it which took us through the poor part of town, their rubbish dump, their vicious dogs and the steepest hill you can imagine.  In the hotel, if something can fall off in your hand it will.

We had to walk back down the hill for supper and to see the carnival.  It was disappointing really, nothing as fun as celebrations in Colombia.   Just lots of very loud music from the back of cars and a collection of weird and wonderful cars and a concert due to start later.   We left them to it and found something to eat, before dragging ourselves back up the hill.

Visiting Glaciers near El Calafate

We were up early today and a minibus collected us just after 7 to take us to the boat about an hour away.  We are excited to be going to see a lot of glaciers on the massive Lago Argentino both from a boat and the final and biggest one, Perito Moreno, both from the boat and from walkways up the hill above.  We were on the move for about 12 hours and it was a great day. 

Because of the lighting on the ice the small calf icebergs  glowed a deep blue.  Where it was safe the boat went up close but where the glaciers were calfing we stayed quite far out.  I am just going to put up a few of the many pictures I took today!

Calafate to a Road Maintenance Shelter at Junction of RN40 and RP7

We got away by 7.45 but the wind was already quite strong.  We did the 32 km back to Ruta 40 in 1.5 hours, about half the time we took going the other way.  We then had a big, but steady gradient, climb with the wind pushing us up the hill.  We actually kept pace with a group of cyclists on road bikes with their luggage in a van, who were a bit miffed when they discovered we weren’t on e-bikes.

We set off before them at the top of the hill and their guide warned us to be careful on the next section which was flat and high with no shelter.  And he was right.  I was terrified as I have never ridden in such strong wind before.  When it initially hit us we were both nearly blown off the far side of the road until we got the hang of cycling at 45 °.  Luckily there weren’t too many cars but those few were travelling fast.  A few got caught out when trying to pass us as once the wind was behind us we were going about 63 km/h.  It was intense, scary and exhausting but we reached 95 km by lunchtime. 

We had seen this shelter on iOverlander2.   And we are now camped in the carport shelter of the council road maintenance building, were the lovely  employee, Claudio, lets cyclists stay, get free WiFi, use the baño and have a shower, for a donation and keeps the area spotless.

The touring group came here for lunch and left us with some delicious chocolate biscuits and some Coca-Cola that was much appreciated.

We have a choice of routes tomorrow that both look difficult if the wind changes as forecast.  We will have to take a view in the morning.

Road Maintenance Shelter on Junction of RN40 and RP7 to Bus Shelter on Junction RN40 and RP7

None of us slept well last night, probably due to the road noise, and initially the generator noise.  Thankfully he turned this off when he went to bed and that also took out all the annoying lights.  Yesterday evening another person arrived to camp.  He was from Venezuela and was walking from Ushuaia to Alaska.

We were all up and packing before 6.30 to try to beat the wind.  We were the slowest and we paid for that with a strengthening headwind.  We had decided to take the shortest route which meant 64 km of ripio (gravel).  This was good quality at first and flat and we saw lots of Rheas running across the road, a couple of Gray Foxes, groups of Guanacos whistling in a strange way as a warning that we were coming and flocks of grey looking sheep.

As the landscape got more interesting and undulating, the ripio (gravel) got very bad and hard to cycle over.  Added to the strengthening headwind it was very tiring.

At the far end we were hoping to find somewhere to camp similar to last night.  iOverlander2 had said there was another road maintenance depot and a police station who would let cyclists use the facilities and camp around the back.  Unfortunately when I asked I was told that they didn’t have any water so couldn’t accommodate us.  We could have camped anyway  but the whole area was pretty grim and dirty. 

We had lunch out of the wind in an oily abandoned generator shed, then after getting our water topped up from a camper van we set off, now on tarmac,  directly into the strong headwind.  All the while we were searching for a place  that we could camp, preferably hidden from the road and protected from the wind.  This was not easy in a totally flat landscape that has no vegetation at all and on a dead straight road.  Eventually we came across a couple of tiny bus stop shelters and set up camp behind one of them.  There is also some kind structure like an old sentry box with no glass in the windows but a roof and a seat where we can cook supper out of the wind and now the rain.

Bus Stop to Rio Turbio

Today was probably the hardest day of the trip, although we were on tarmac all the way the headwind was unrelenting.  When we woke at 6 am the wind was already blowing strongly.   We quickly had breakfast,  just porridge as we didn’t have enough water for tea.  In fact we didn’t have enough water left for the day, just ¾ of a bottle each and most of the rivers we have passed have very little water in them and smell grim.

Strangely, considering where we were, we had both had the best sleep for some time.  Despite being right next to the road there was almost no traffic and the wind hid any noises.

We took turns cycling in front for the first hour until we came to a corner, but I could only manage about 3 mins at a time in front.  The corner made it worse as it was now on our front quarter pushing us across the road, luckily there were very few cars, and making drafting impossible.   Eventually, after several hours we finally turned far enough to bring the wind slightly behind us, but never for very long.

We were now very low on water, so whenever a car came up behind I stopped and waved my water bottle.   The lorries and tourist minibuses didn’t stop, but a family driving the other way did and kindly gave us 6 bottles.

We eventually made it to a place called Julia Dufour which was basically a series of filthy coal mines with a thermo electric plant, and strangely, having seen the thick black water in the streams, a water purification centre for the town,  Rio Turbio.

As we went through Julia Dufour everything changed on the road.  Here were the first rust buckets we had seen in Argentina and they were driven aggressively.  Twice I had a car come up behind me and skid to a halt as there was no room to overtake.  Then they leant on the horn until they went past, black fumes pouring out the back.

We climbed steeply up to Rio Turbio still against the wind, into a town that fitted the run down mining operation we had passed.  It looked really grim.  Against our expectations we went to the only hotel we could see on Google and it was really nice.  Shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.  And we really needed that shower!

Rio Turbio, Argentina, to Puerto Natales, Chile.

We had a climb up to the pass and the Argentinian Chilean border first thing.  It was steep getting out of Rio Turbio but after that it settled into a steady climb for 325 m.  It was so nice that there was no wind yet as it was forecast to get strong later.

As usual the Argentinian customs was fairly laid back and easy, and one of the officers came out for a chat afterwards.   They get posted here for two weeks at a time before heading back home in Buenos Aires in his case.

The Chilean side was much slower.  We must have answered one question wrong in the beginning as after that they seemed convinced we had arrived on one bicycle.   We eventually persuaded them we had two and had to give them make and colour which was noted down on the computer and we got a separate  entry slip for them.   We didn’t get this at the airport when we arrived.  We were surprised they didn’t ask about food as they are normally very hot on that, and I had expected them to take away our lunch.

From there it was relatively easy to Puerto Natales, despite the now strong headwind, as it was all down hill to the sea. 

Puerto Natales was set up for the hundreds of foreign tourists that are here, unlike Rio Turbio which was definitely off the trail and nicer for it in a strange way.  We got here much earlier than expected and after the usual coffee and cake we were happy to find our hostel let us in a few hours early.

We have now been cycling here for about six weeks and have covered over 1600 km, that’s 995 miles, and climbed 21,396 m (70,200 ft).  We have really enjoyed the route and have been incredibly lucky with the weather.  We have mostly had tail winds,  until the end, and have only had half a day of rain while we have been cycling.  It mainly rained overnight.   So now it’s time to head home.  If you have any questions please contact us.